Author's Note

This is, first and foremost, an idea i wanted to get out there. if anyone is unfamiliar with the Darksiders series don't worry, it might a bit but I will explain things.

For those of you who have played darksiders 2 this story takes place just after completing the quest line for the Kingdom of the Dead.

If things get too confusing or something, let me know and I'll try to adjust the story to make things more clear.

I've done my best to look for typos, hopefully I didn't miss any.

Chapter 1

On an island far beyond the peaceful lands of Equestria, in the center of a deep, thick forest filled with twisted creatures and large crystal like growths that glowed a sickly green stood a tree. It towered over all things like a mountain as it branches stretched beyond the clouds and out of sight and its roots sunk so deep it may as well have existed long before the earth itself and in a way, it did.

The Tree of Life lay dormant, the strange circular depressions in the tangled wood of its roots once gave way to portals to other worlds and realms, now they were nothing more a oddity on the giant tree and even the steps that led up to the long dead portals had been worn way by the eons and only vaguely showed a path that many races once tread.

Peculiar growths that bore more than a passing resemblance to chains extended out from the base of the trunk and slowly morphed into marble white links of solid magic that trailed on and ended attached to a creature that stood not far from the tree. It was a thin equine creature with a single spiraled horn growing out its forehead that had clearly seen better days, beneath the shackles and chains it's fur was mattered and the feathers on a pair of folded wings were either broken or loose. It's white mane and tail was long and trailed to the ground where it was tangle and knotted with dirt and branches alike.

The chains clinked and the winged unicorn winced as it tried to shuffle and move it's form on overgrown and chipped hooves and with no sign of success it silently rolled it's eyes and resumed staring blankly out into the shadows of the surrounding forest.

A leaf floated down from a nearby tree and landed in a small mirror like pool of water at the creature's hooves, it looked down at it and let out a rasping, hollow chuckle when it caught sight of its reflection. tired, golden eyes with a faint glow stared back on an incredibly gaunt face that matched it's malnourished form.

"Just skin and bones, nothing new there." it whispered in a feminine voice that could barely be heard even in the almost tranquil quiet of the forest.

There was a sound of flowing water coming from behind, her ears twitched at the sound as she waited patiently for what she knew was to come next. The sound of heavy footfalls soon overtook the earlier silence as something new moved to stand before her.

A bipedal being with grey skin and long black hair with mismatched pieces of armor on his feet hands with chest left bare, a featureless mask of bone concealing his face and a purple jeweled talisman clipped to his pants. Though the figure had glass shards embedded in the right side of his chest, she could sense the presence of both powerful magic and enchanted weapons on his person, there was no mistaking who this was.

"Greetings Death," the winged unicorn rasped. "Welcome to the Sealed Realm. I would offer you a tour but I'm a tad tied up at the moment."

"The Sealed Realm..." Death repeated. "Tell me, All-Sworn is there a way to leave this place?"

"Had you arrived a thousand or so years earlier, I would have gladly pointed you in the right direction, but I'm afraid my usual method of dealing with this is no longer an option but alas, despite my efforts Corruption has only strengthened its hold upon my realm and leaving now is impossible..." the chained up creature replied though she paused for a moment. "I am confused though Rider, I had thought knowledge of my kind was lost, only known to the Makers, how do you know of the All-Sworn?"

"I met one," Death growled. "She was more than happy to toy with me before sending me here."

"Then it falls to me to clean up her mess, Apologies for not properly introducing myself but I am Silvia, one of the last of the All-Sworn." The winged unicorn replied.

"So then Silvia, just how exactly do I leave this realm?" Death asked and as an afterthought added "And why are you chained to the Tree of Life?"

"How familiar are you with the history of this realm?" Silvia replied.

"Admittedly I know little, a few legends here and there. It is said that before the existence of the Charred Council your people declared your realm a neutral territory during the ongoing war between the armies of Heaven and Hell. That you opened your city gates to Angels and Demons alike, which soon drove a wedge between your people and resulted in civil war." Death explained.

"I'm afraid that was the case, with our city in chaos and our realm in danger, six individuals were chosen to try and bring peace to the conflict..." Silvia began. "It was out of desperation that we six ultimately imprisoned those who would not see reason and sealed off our realm from all others that weren't a mirror of this one."

"So you were a part of it?"

"I was, yes," Silvia replied. "By the time the barrier was in place, my brother, our friends and I saw that Corruption had begun seeping into the realm from the Tree, so we created a weapon to purify our home and I bound myself to tree to strengthen the barrier and to purify any Corruption that tried to seep in and prevent such a destructive force from further poisoning the realm."

"That weapon doesn't appear to have worked very well from the looks of things." Death commented dryly and gestured the corruption filled crystal like growths that could be seen in the forest in front of them.

"Oh yes give me a moment, let me untangle myself from eons of being chained up to fix it." Silvia snarked back before her calm demeanor returned. "You're not the first to end up here, horseman but I might be able to send you to someone who may be able to help you."

"Go on.." Death prompted.

"Head through the forest, you will soon find a clearing where one of the world's few naturally formed portals resides, ask it to take you to Canterlot and seek an audience with Princess Celestia, she'll be able to guide you to areas where the Corruption is at it's strongest, once those areas are cleared the balance of this world will be restored and she should be able to send you past the barrier." Silvia explained.

"And what will happen to you?" Death asked. "You send me on my way while your still bound to the Tree?"

"I sacrificed my magic to save this world, now my happiness is all I have left to give," Silvia replied calmly. "The Tree keeps me... conscious and I have learned to live with the pain, I wouldn't trouble you further by asking you to take me with you."

"You seem quite knowledgeable about this realm despite being out of touch from it for so long and if the tales about your people are true, you prove most useful to me on my journey." Death countered.

Silvia snorted and her next words were thick with sarcasm. "Oh of course Death, I would love to be set free and rendered helpless. It would be such a joy to be a burden on one who has arrived here unintentionally."

She paused as Death appeared to think about something and walked past her back towards the Tree, twin scythes in hand.

"Wait, what are you-?" She began.

A pair of Phantom, skeletal arms materialized above Death and held a section of the chain in place. Death raised a scythe and a sharp ring and clang of metal hitting magic echoed in the quite clearing followed by a thud as Silvia's limited strength left her, forced her to the ground and into unconsciousness.

When she awoke, Silvia noticed the back of her head and neck felt much lighter, as did her tail. The second thing that struck her was that she was clean. She rolled onto her stomach and took stock of her surroundings. She was still in the forest, that much was certain. round her she noticed areas of the ground were charred black as if stained by corruption but there were no signs of the jagged crystals that accompanied its presence.

She looked down at her hooves to find them perfectly normal, a feat she hadn't considered possible since she chained herself to the Tree of Life. Her body ached slightly but it was something that she considered normal by now as she shakily stood up, she wobbled and stumbled like a newborn foal but eventually she found her footing and a small confidence boost to boot. She walked forward slowly with an exaggerated gait to test her full range of movement and satisfied with her findings, continued at a more regular pace as she scanned the forest for any sign of Death.

Further on a sound caught her attention and as she followed it, Silvia recognized the sound of battle in the distance. the snarls of some sort of beast and the thwack of metal upon wood met her ears. Silvia watched as a creature made of wood in the crude shape of wolf did battle with the Horseman of the Apocalypse. Death's twin scythes swung in a rapid flurry of combos which sent bits of wood and green sap flying in all directions. The wolf paid its wounds no mind as it darted back from the blows, the nearby forest liter rolling towards it and repairing the cracks in its cursed form.

The wooden wolf lunged forward but missed as Death swiftly moved out of the way. Before it could attack again the reaper darted forward, the ends of scythes snapping together to form a large one handed weapon s he threw it towards the best. the weapon spun in a circle, the rapidly spinning blades tore into the back of the corrupted beast and dazed it long enough for Death to charge forward with a large axe in hand and brought the weapon down onto the creatures head, finally sealing the monster's end.

Silvia saw another of the wooden beasts attempting to slink out of the undergrowth in an ambush, She acted quickly and darted over to the wolf, her hooves and horn alight with white flames as she bought a fore hoof down and crushed its skull. The attack left her light headed and a headache quickly formed as Death noticed her handiwork and approached.

"I could've handled that." he stated as the last of the white flames disappeared from her body.

"You freed me rider, I thought I might prove my worth." Silvia replied.

Death grunted and turned to head further into the forest.

"Try and keep up!" he called over his shoulder.

Silvia rolled her eyes and trotted after him as silence reigned once more.

"What were those creatures?" Death asked as they walked.

"They were Timber Wolves, originally they were constructs made to counter corruption but ultimately fell prey to it," Silvia replied. "They stick to forests like this but have managed to spread across the entire world leaving fear and corpses in their wake."

"I take it they aren't the only things in this forest?"

"No but most creatures know by now to avoid me." Silvia replied.

"You can't be that powerful in your condition." Death said.

"True but I can't be killed so I don't exactly make ideal prey." She replied.

"Everything dies in the end, what makes you so different?" Death asked curiously.

"The All-Sworn, or Alicorns as the mortals of this realm call us have such powerful souls that should we suffer fatal wounds, our bodies morph into raw energy that is absorbed by the core that houses our souls and by absorbing energy or magic from the environment we can revive ourselves in a new body with all our memories and experiences intact, though many have chosen to simply sleep away the centuries than return to the world," Silvia explained. "With everything that happened, i don't blame them."

"There are some out there that would call you lucky." Death commented.

"Oh spare me, Immortality is above all else, boring," Silvia replied flatly. "Mortals have holidays, festivals and celebrations of birth! I spend my time hoping the world doesn't implode on itself."

Death gave a short chuckle of amusement before something caught his eye. Silvia followed his gaze to find a rather large crow with a faint, purple glow headed towards them. With a caw the bird landed on Death's shoulder.

"It's about time you got here Dust, where have you been?" he asked and the bird just clucked and flew off.

"If you're done sight seeing, mind showing us the way?" Death called out to the crow, which began to glow bright purple and headed straight down the forest path.

"Friend of yours?" Silvia asked as the pair followed the bird.

"His name is Dust, a reliable navigator, when he wants to be." Death replied dryly.

"I can confirm we're going in the right way at least." Silvia replied humorously.

"Good to know."

The duo cut their conversation short s entered a clearing. Sunlight struggled its way through the thick overgrown canopy and it just barely illuminated the ruins of some sort of stone building that was in the center. The shadows seemed to move and many green eyes peered at them from beyond the treeline.

Death stepped through first with his weapons drawn as Silvia trailed behind wary and ready to fight. As if on some unseen cue, several Timber Wolves rushed out from the darkness and swarmed them both. Death had learned from his previous fight and aimed to destroy or sever the head of the beasts while Silvia backed herself into a corner to force the creatures into the range of carefully timed kicks and strikes of her hooves.

The wolves proved smart and grew wise to their tricks as the fight wore on. Silvia was quickly losing her patience as more of the beasts charged her only to jump back from her blows and snap at her hooves as soon as they had the chance. She heard Death snarl in frustration as they employed a similar tactic against him. Silvia frowned and snapped her wings open, a stray beam of sunlight glinting off the metallic sheen of her feathers as she swept her wing over her attackers, feathers slicing through wood to tear the creatures apart.

Several gunshots rang through the air and the alicorn looked to see Death had pulled out a pistol and was firing at the heads of the attacking timber wolves which felled them instantly. She flicked sap off her wing as the wolves retreated, growling at them both.

"That was fun." Death sarcastically stated.

Silvia nickered in amusement and with a wing, she pointed at the ruins. "There lies the portal, from there we head to Canterlot."

"What kind of building is this? It didn't look this big from outside." Death asked, perplexed.

Silvia afforded herself a small smile as she explained. "Before the civil war I was gifted in spell craft and enchanted everything from tools to trinkets, One of my greatest achievements was designing a spell matrix to make a structure bigger on the inside. This particular building was one we used to record the fall of our people for those who, like you, would unintentionally find themselves here."

A large stone tablet covered in writing greeted the pair near a shimmering round pool of inky black water.

"We would have gone with painted murals, but none of us had the skill for it." Silvia stated.

With pacts between Angel and Demon forged the Royal Family feared the uneasy peace would one day be broken and planned ahead. Six nobles of pure blood gave themselves as mates to Angel or Demon and from that union came All-Sworn of mixed blood that would serve as symbols of peace between the races.

We six write that the plan failed and be it through loyalty to Angels or trickery by Demons our city fell and we fled with those who wished for peace. A new kingdom was forged underground with us at the its helm and the armies of heaven and hell at our door. Once more fled but this time not without striking back.

For those who could not be saved nor swayed we entombed in the very kingdom we had built, forever trapped beneath the earth be they angel, demon or all-sworn.

Our kind are driven by blood to protect and serve and this has destroyed us. with the survivors scared and scarred by the events we let them sleep and their souls became the foundation of the barrier that seals this world from all others and the stars of the sky.

To bring stability to the world and fight a darkness that has risen from the conflict we gave our magic to form the moon, sun and the weapon of hope and leave them in the care of the last of our children as we six scatter to the winds to maintain watch over the new world we have forged. The tablet read with six symbols acting as signatures at the very bottom.

"Do the symbols mean anything?" Death asked. "I'm sure I've seen one of them before..."

"Our magic expresses itself as a symbol on our flanks once it has attuned to whatever subject we specialize in," Silvia replied. "Mine is the first one, the butterfly and I'm guessing the snake biting its tail is the one you recognize?"

"Yes that witch that sent me here, she wore that symbol on her robe."

"That was Lillia, a half demon that wasn't content with her place in the world after she gave up her magic. She tampered with time and escaped past the barrier to attain power, I haven't heard from her since," Silvia stated and stepped up onto the pool of water. "This is the portal, there's a small town near Canterlot we can go to for supplies and once I get a decent meal I'll acquire transport to the capital and ask Celestia for help."

"And how exactly are you going to pay for those supplies?" Death asked as he stepped up to the portal.

"While I might be able to acquire a map and some tools to pinpoint concentrations of corruption in town, I also don't plan on going against it unarmed. Have you heard of a merchant called Vulgrim?" She replied.